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The marketing behind many pumpkin spice-flavored items, like the latte, condition our brains to believe that pumpkin spice is the flavor of fall, and to anticipate the flavor's arrival each season as something comforting, says Catherine Franssen, assistant professor of psychology and director of the neurostudies minor at Longwood University."We don't have innate odor responses, we learn odors through associations, but the associations we make with pumpkin spice are generally all very positive."

By combining the recognizable pumpkin spice flavor with sugar, you train your brain and body to remember how delicious the combination is -- and as soon as you smell or even imagine pumpkin spice, your body will have an anticipatory response and crave it.